Who is Lily Hevesh? For the world's most famous domino artist with 3 million Youtube subscribers (@Hevesh5), this is a huge question — and one that simply goes unanswered in “Lily Topples The World.” Though Jeremy Workman's latest entry in the SXSW Documentary Competition showcases Lily Hevesh's domino sets behind the scenes, he fails to explore the mastermind herself beyond surface-level analysis. This ends up with a largely disappointing watch. The documentary ends up more attractive for its simple domino footage (of course set to classical music) than it does as an exploration of who Lily Hevesh is beyond the titles: the person, the artist-engineer, the girl.
“Lily Topples the World” opens with promise. The film begins at Lily Hevesh's current position at Rensselaer Technological Institute in New York. After that though, it only goes downhill. Though the documentary promises excitement — sprinkled with star presence (including cameos featuring Jimmy Fallon, Katy Perry, and Will Smith) and scenes shot in three different countries — the documentary remains largely destitute of Lily's own personal life.
The cracks in Lily's professional persona only begin to show forty minutes in when the documentary turns its attention to Lily's parents, Mark and Catherine. They introduce home video footage of Lily as a child after they first adopted her from China. Lily too then briefly explores her identity as an Asian American in a brief snippet from a radio show. This personal reprieve, however, is very brief; indeed, Lily's older siblings are not even mentioned. In a twisted sort of way, Lily's adoption status feels like a manipulated ploy on Workman's part to draw sympathy. Workman brushes these deeply personal encounters aside to return to Lily's mythmaking, an identity-building based on her accomplishment alone.
The film's whirlwind pace – of following Lily interview after interview, project after project – almost feels exhausting. The consistently public focus gives Workman little room to explore Lily's own biographical behind-the-scenes. This points Workman to fall into a trap that so often follow the simply celebratory stories of Asian Americans: Lily is reduced to a professional persona, a workhorse, brilliant but without any spunk. There is no challenge or fault in the life of this model Asian American. Lily is instead framed as a not just a celebrity, but as an eccentric: she is nothing more than a flat personality, a socially awkward genius with a life dominated only by her domino-related accomplishment.
Of course, perhaps Workman is not entirely at fault. Lily is still an incredibly young subject. At the time of the documentary, she was only twenty-years old. It is perhaps only natural that she has not explored deeply enough all that life has to offer; perhaps too, this was in Lily's own contract. One can only speculate that she did not want to appear vulnerable in front of the camera. Workman's blind praise, however, makes the film read more as a saccharine promotional video than it does an intriguing backstory doc. Perhaps the online premiere suits this film, after all: it is just a longer Youtube video of Hevesh5, not of Lily Hevesh herself.
All in all, “Lily Topples the World” is a largely disappointing watch. If one were to consider spending 90 minutes of their life on film, I suggest one turn to Hevesh5's 3-5 minute videos on her Youtube channel instead. At least then Lily could benefit from the extra views.
It is interesting how a ‘professional critic’ would publish a review, esp a negative one, when they did not watch the entire film, start to finish. How do we know this? Because Grace claims the film lacks an “…exploration of who Lily Hevesh is…the person, the artist-engineer, the girl.” Anyone who has seen the entire film has come away with plenty of insight in these areas. It is a very personal look at Lily the person. Watch it, then judge that for yourself, and realize how curiously off-base this review is.